100 Innovative Startups Picked Out of 1,700 Applications for Elevate

ELEVATE 100, the entrepreneurship platform of the Karnataka government to select 100 innovative startups, has helped the state to look at innovation happening across the state, said Minister for IT, BT & Tourism, Priyank Kharge.

Speaking at a media interaction, at the Elevate 100 event, he said selecting 100 innovative startups out of 1,700 applications was a tedious task.

“We organised three month-long pitching sessions at Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Mangaluru, Hubballi and Bengaluru. This helped us to narrow down to 300 startups and later select 111 startups for the continuous mentoring programme and Rs 35 crore grant. We have selected 11 rural and 19 women entrepreneurs,” Kharge said.

He said the selection process helped the government in enhancing industry and government collaboration and strengthen innovation prowess of Karnataka.

“The efforts of Karnataka government doesn’t stop at elevating the chosen 100. We see ELEVATE 100 as a continuous process where the best ideas from the state gets the support and guidance they deserve,” he said.

The startups selected include electronics system design & manufacturing (ESDM -27), Life Sciences (19), BioTech (11), Agri-Tech (11), animation, visual effects, gaming & comic Sector (AVGC- 4), Clean Tech (4), and information technology enabled services (26). Women Entrepreneurs -19, Rural -11.

During the two-day Elevate 100 conference, the state government signed eight MoUs to cater to the needs of the identified startups.

Karnataka Signs MoUs with 8 Technology Firms to Assist Startups

The Karnataka government has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with eight technology companies, including Google and Amazon India, to help startups under its Elevate 100 programme. The state has selected 100 startups under the programme and will provide them with mentorship and financial support from its Rs 400-crore startup fund.

Google and Amazon Activate will provide $3,000 worth of cloud credits for startups registered with the government's Startup Cell and $20,000 worth of cloud credits to startups who are winners of Elevate 100. Digital Ocean will provide $100 one-time credit and a $1,000 one-time credit. Yes Bank, Kotak Bank, and Zoho will help the startups with banking and accounting services. PwC and Legal Advisors will help them with consulting services.

Priyank Kharge, IT, BT & tourism minister, said: “The efforts of the Karnataka government doesn't stop at elevating the chosen 100. We see Elevate 100 as a continuing process where the best ideas from the state get the support and guidance they deserve.“

The winners, which were selected from 1,700 applicants, operate in various sectors.

Over 1,70,000 School Children to Benefit from Amazon Cares, Akshaya Patra Partnership for Ksheera Bhagya Scheme in Bengaluru

In line with Amazon Care’s vision of transforming lives, Amazon has partnered with The Akshaya PatraFoundation to reach out to 1,70,000 children across 1300 schools, contributing to the Government of Karnataka's flagship ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ Scheme in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Under the partnership, Amazon will help the Foundation in distributing and providing a healthy glass of milk to the school children, five days a week to help them be stronger, sharper and have a great start to their day.

The partnership was announced at an event held today at Govt. Kannada & Tamil Model Primary School, Cleveland Town, Bengaluru, in the presence of Roshan Baig, Minister for Urban Development & Haj, A. Manju, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries & Horticulture Department, Mehroz Khan, Member of the Chief Minister’s Vision Group, R Akhanda SrinivasaMurthy, MLA, Pulikeshi Nagar, AR Zakir, Councillor, Pulikeshi Nagar, Prabha Alexander, BEO, North Range 3and Gopal Pillai, Director & GM, Seller Services, Amazon India.

Akshaya Patra, in partnership with the Government of Karnataka, implements the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme to provide milk to school andanganwadi children in Karnataka.  This scheme ensures that children start their day in school with a healthy glass of milk, which is rich in protein and fat, essential for healthy growth and all-round development of children. This nutritious component also helps in improving their concentration in school. The partnership between Amazon Cares and Akshaya Patra will enable Akshaya Patra to implement the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme to provide milk to school children for five days of the week for this entire academic year.

Encouraging this partnership, Roshan Baig, A. Manju and Mehroz Khan expressed their support for the scheme. They also spoke on the benefits of providing milk to school children on regular basis. They appreciated Amazon Cares for partnering with Akshaya Patra and this direction of transforming lives of the underserved children in the society.

Talking about the partnership, Gopal Pillai, Director & GM, Seller Services, Amazon India said, “In line with Amazon Care’s vision of Transforming Lives, we have partnered with the civil society at large to bring about transformation and betterment of the community. We work in areas of education, health, livelihoodand sanitation all over the country.  Today, we are delighted topartner with Akshaya Patra and contribute our bit in the Ksheer Bhagya Scheme, to help in the milk distribution across 1300 government schools in Bengaluru and ensure that these children get a healthy glass of milk every morning for their holistic growth.”         

Shridhar Venkat, CEO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation said, “We welcome Amazon Care’s initiative to support the supply of milk underKsheera Bhagya Scheme by the Government of Karnataka, which helps the child to start the morning in schools with a nutritious and healthy drink. With this support, we look forward to work with the Government of Karnataka in making the child’s morning healthy and energetic.”

ABB Reaches 5 Gigawatt Milestone for Supply of Solar Inverters in India

ABB India has surpassed the 5 GW milestone for the supply of solar inverters in India. From schools to airports, canal tops and mega solar plants, ABB's solar inverters with global technology made In India power various solar Installations across the country. As per market reports, India is set to become the third largest solar market in the world in 2017, expected to touch about 5 percent of the global solar capacity and ABB India is ready to support this growth.

Azure Power and ABB India's senior leadership were present at an event to mark the 5GW milestone journey supported by ABB customers in India. The event took place in ABB solar inverter factory in Bengaluru. Inverters are the heart of solar installations and ABB pioneered inverter production in the country in 2012. Last year, ABB India doubled its solar inverter manufacturing capacity in India. The expansion follows earlier milestones achieved by ABB India in 2015 – the first company to double the solar inverter installed base to 2GW in a span of five months. ABB's end to end portfolio for solar energy including solar inverters, powers about 50 percent of the various solar projects in the country.

"Azure Power has demonstrated its strong project development, engineering, and execution capabilities with the support of leading technology partners such as ABB. Their best in class technology and solutions complement our strategy of superior operating performance of our long term energy contracts," said Inderpreet S Wadhwa, Chairman and CEO, Azure Power.

“We would like to thank and acknowledge all our customers and channel partners for their continued support and commitment to ABB quality and technology. As India makes rapid strides on its clean energy mission, we are proud to partner this journey with our best in class, future-proof global technology made in India,” said Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, ABB India. “Quality products and innovative solutions are key to continue the momentum of growth of Indian renewable energy installations with digitalization adding the competitive edge. This makes ABB a natural choice to keep pace with the energy revolution sweeping the sector,” he added.

An early entrant in the renewable energy landscape, Azure Power is among the longest tenured utility scale solar power producers in India, with one of the largest portfolios of operating projects in the country. They executed India’s first private utility scale solar project in 2009 and the first megawatt-scale solar rooftop project over a distributed area in 2013. Azure Power's rooftop solar project portfolio comprises 100 MW across 14 states in India.

Between April 2016 and March 2017, India witnessed more renewable energy capacity addition than the thermal counterpart for the first time in history, data of the Indian Central Electricity Authority (CEA) showed.

ABB is the leading global supplier of solar photovoltaic (PV) inverters. ABB's solar inverter product portfolio ranges from 2 kW to 2 MW; 2 kW to 120 kW are string inverters optimized for residential rooftop usage and 250 kW to 2 MW central inverters are ideal for cost-efficient multi-megawatt power plants. The key differentiators of ABB solar inverters are high reliability, efficiency and ease of installation and maintenance. Plant management solutions including environmental management, software tools and lifetime support are also part of the portfolio.

ABB offerings in solar in India: ABB provides the most comprehensive portfolio of products, systems, solutions and services along the solar PV value chain that enable the generation, transmission and distribution of solar power for grid-connected and microgrid applications. ABB’s offering includes inverters, low-voltage products, monitoring and control systems, grid connection, stabilization and integration products, as well as complete electrical balance of plant solutions. ABB also offers a wide range of support and maintenance services, including remote operations and diagnostics, helping ensure solar installations deliver optimal performance.

Royal Stag Barrel Selects Large Short Films Strengthens Partnership With Jio Mami

Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films, one of the most credible and celebrated stages for short films in India, announces its association with Jio MAMI with Star for the second time in a row. Strengthening this partnership and taking this alliance a notch higher, Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films will continue to sponsor the Large Short Film category at the 19^th season of this esteemed film festival in Mumbai. The Mumbai Film Festival is the biggest movie feast in India showcasing the latest cutting-edge, independent cinema from across the world. The association will help to promote new trends in the cinema space and also strengthen Large Short Films as a big platform for short films in India.

True to the platform’s highly acclaimed status in the industry today, Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films will premier 4 powerful short films by acclaimed Bollywood directors at the festival this year. Furthermore these master storytellers will share their ‘pursuit to perfection’ stories over panel discussions.  

Over the last three years, Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films has gained immense popularity and has released some of the most prodigious and award winning short films with renowned artists and directors from the industry which truly reflects originality, imagination and perfection.

Speaking about the association, Raja Banerji, Assistant Vice President, Marketing, Pernod Ricard India, said “We are extremely delighted to take our association with JIO MAMI to the next level. Not only are we proud  to own the short film category at the festival, we are also happy to screen 4 short films by renowned directors and 10 short films by aspiring film makers at the festival making this partnership grander. Our platform Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films has carved a niche for itself in the short film industry in India by driving its evolution in the last few years. It is great to see that not only are short films emerging as powerful as full feature films attracting great audiences, but are also attracting great talent from the mainstream film industry. This association is enormously crucial for the growth of our platform as well as the continued progression of the short film genre.”

United in their commitment to the short film genre with Jio MAMI with Star, the platform has created a challenging contest for aspiring filmmakers across the country. Inspiring them to create original short films and providing them the right stage to showcase their work, the platform will screen 10 best short films at the festival. Out of these, one director – the jury’s favourite will get an opportunity to intern with Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The contest will be judged by an eminent jury comprising producer and actress, Srishti Behl Arya, actor Rajkummar Rao and film director and screenwriter Nitya Mehra.

Smriti Kiran, Creative Director, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star said, "We are extremely proud of our partnership with The Royal Stag Barrel Select-Large Short Films. This is our second year of association. Some of the best content with regard to short films in India has come out of this platform. They have put short films on the map by backing the most exciting narratives, filmmakers and discovering some really unique new voices. Last year the films that screened under this category were so good that I cannot wait to watch the final ten films that make it after going through the scrutiny of the stellar LSF Jury this year: Filmmakers Nitya Mehra, Shrishti Arya and Actor Rajkummar Rao. These are the films we will screen at the festival this year."

Themed on the philosophy of “Make it Perfect”, The Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films is a platform for aspiring directors to feature along with mainstream Bollywood directors while still chasing their creative energy to create a niche for themselves in the industry. The platform gives a credible stage to the storytellers to showcase their artistic creativity and reach out to their target audience through the digital world.

To inspire young filmmakers to create powerful short films that will have a profound effect on its audience, we have created a short film featuring the legendary actor / director Tinu Anand. Conceptualized by River, an independent creative agency and produced by Early Man production house, the short film celebrates the power, an original film can hold over its audience and how it influences people in many ways.

Power Devices - SiC & IGBT from ROHM Can Reduce the Cost of Renewable Energy

ROHM Semiconductor India Pvt Ltd (RSI) a subsidiary of ROHM Co. Ltd., Kyoto, has recently announced an array of power solutions like SiC, IGBT, and gate drivers, for improving the power conversion efficiency. These products are intended to meet the harsh condition of India’s rapidly growing power infrastructure.

“Quality is our top priority at all times” said Daisuke Nakamura, Managing Director of Rohm Semiconductor India Pvt. Ltd. “It is our company mission which we have maintained since its establishment in 1958. It is same in India business, too.  We always offer the high quality and reliable solutions and by that, we also would like to be the best partner of Indian customers. Silicon Carbide power devices with trench structure that leverage industry-leading technology is a product which will be able to contribute ‘affordable renewable energy’. It would help not only the improvement of energy conversion but also the implementation of smaller and stronger in renewable energy application like a solar inverter or high input voltage power supply.”

The population increase due to urbanization, growing manufacturing Industries, India will face a chronic power shortage. Rural electrification is also attained high priority. This has driven the demand for solutions that can provide a stable and distributed energy with minimal resource utilization. This has increased the demand for power plants based on renewable energy like solar, wind energy, besides other not so popular biomass, tidal etc. According to the National Electricity Plan drafted by the Central Electric Authority, the country will see a rapid increase in non-fossil fuels based renewable energy, like nuclear or hydro-electric power to 56.5% by 2027. This will serve to decrease the country’s reliance on fossil fuels while establishing renewable energy as a viable new source for the future, while clamping on the trade deficit owing to the import of oil and coal.

RSI, working on the Gandhian principle of “more from less, for more” to make the energy affordable to masses. It is working towards maximizing the energy harvested by controlling the power loss during all the power stages of conversion like conditioning, inversion etc. This is towards creating more from less, i.e., effective utilization of renewable energy. For example, as much as 30% of the electric energy is lost in the process of generation, transmission and distribution. This loss along with the loses in power conversion is believed to exceed 35%. In response, RSI proposes power solutions centered on cutting-edge SiC power devices that achieve higher efficiency in the power conversion. The trench SiC-based inverters can reduce power loss by as much as ~2% compared to the conventional devices like IGBT, Si MOSFET etc., while contributing towards miniaturization owing to reduced heat dissipation.

The improvement in size and efficiency owing to the adoption of the power solutions from RSI, like gate drivers, trench SiC MOSFETs, and IGBTs, play a vital role in enabling small scale and distributed power plants for tapping solar and wind energy. A ~2% increase in efficiency along with the reduced cooling requirements can bring in a considerable cost saving for the end customers, besides improving the reliability of the power converters. This will help bridge the demand supply gap, which is “more from less, for more”, thus reaching more people. The distributed power generation, besides reducing a huge burden on our grid, reduces the transmission and distribution losses.

Quick local support for designing systems using technologies is available from experienced Application Engineering team in Bangalore. RSI’s sales & marketing teams in New Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai work closely with customers to ensure support in adopting these products and reap the rich benefits.

Five New 4G jivi Mobiles Enters Smart Phone Business Across India

Jivi mobiles has entered the smart phone market with its new product portfolio of 5 smart phones starting from Rs 3,333 to Rs 6,599 in India. Priced very competitively, every model comes with double warranty which means the user will get a free replacement and free screen replacement for 111 days from the date of purchase. Along with standard accessories, the customers will also get protection gears free of cost which included Tempered glass, protective case and flip cover.

Under the 111 days replacement warranty, the company is offering replacement of handset for hardware defect within 111 days from the date of purchase/activation. There is also free screen (LCD/TP) replacement one time within 111 days from the date of purchase & activation.

jivi smart phones exhibit great style combined with cutting-edge technology, the devices aspire to be the ideal companion for people who are looking for offering seamless and enhanced user experience at an affordable price.

Talking about the new range of smart phones, Pankaj Anand, CEO, jivi mobiles said, “We are extremely happy to launch our smart phone range for our discerning customers. At jivi, the focus is on providing the best technology at competitive prices. Our research team has worked tirelessly in making this a reality. We are one of the very few companies in the country to offer such a wide range of smart phones at such amazing price points and we are the pioneers in offering 111 days warranty as well. All our devices and chargers are Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) approved. The products would be ‘Made in India’, in our facility in Delhi. ”  

Expressing his elation on the launch of smart phone, Irffan Khan, brand Ambassador of jivi mobiles said, “I have always known jivi to be an inspirational brand in India as they have assiduously worked towards achieving their goal of providing cutting edge technology at best prices to the customers. The new range of smart phones is a proof of their commitment and 111 days replacement warranty is a never seen before offer. I am very happy to be associated with jivi mobiles and would love to see through this association for a long time.”        

jivi mobiles has taken a major step in the direction of realizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of ‘Make in India’ by setting up two new facilities with an investment of Rs. 200 crores. Jivi Mobile first factory is in Mahipalpur, New Delhi built up on an area of 15000 sq. ft. which would cater to North and East India demand of jivi mobiles phones. Company’s 1^st facility in Mahipalpur has a capacity to roll out 7 lakh phones per month and it employs some 350 employees in the first phase.

Second facility of jivi mobiles which is located in Lonavla, Maharashtra to cater to the South and Western parts of the country, would be operational in the coming months.